{"id":2411,"date":"2021-11-09T15:51:14","date_gmt":"2021-11-09T15:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stcleaner.com\/blog\/?p=2411"},"modified":"2022-11-07T15:01:25","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T15:01:25","slug":"windows-11-creates-thousands-of-empty-folders-how-to-get-rid-of-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stcleaner.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/09\/windows-11-creates-thousands-of-empty-folders-how-to-get-rid-of-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Windows 11 Creates Thousands of Empty Folders. How to Get Rid of them?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><br><\/p>\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does your Windows 11 create hundreds of thousands of empty folders in the system drive? Many Internet users are reporting a glitch that causes Windows 11 to suddenly create a large number of empty folders in the C:\\Windows\\System32\\config\\systemprofile\\AppData\\Local directory.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Use the Clean Empty Folders tool in Clone Files Checker to delete bulk empty folders with a single click. The process is fast, safe, and gives accurate results.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.clonefileschecker.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Use Clone Files Checker to delete empty folders<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Clone Files Checker follows Google Software Principles<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><b>Why does Windows 11 create empty folders in large numbers?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These empty folders are being created by the Provisioning Package Runtime Processing Tool (ProvTool.exe). This issue was first reported in 2019 on the Windows 10 operating system. Many users have started reporting the same issue now on Windows 11 machines as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The following directory is flooded with hundreds of thousands of empty folders:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">C:\\Windows\\System32\\config\\systemprofile\\AppData\\Local<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><b>Why do empty folders need to be deleted?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over time, your computer gets cluttered with disorganized files and empty folders. Many empty folders are left behind by applications you\u2019ve already uninstalled. As more and more such directories are added, it impacts your system performance and your computer runs terribly slower. In addition to that, such disorganized data requires you to drill down through dozens of folders to find files that you actually need to access.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><b>Is it safe to delete these empty folders?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, it\u2019s absolutely safe to delete the empty folders. Deleting the empty folders will not cause any harm to the operating system.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><b>How to delete the empty folders?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are two ways of deleting empty folders- First, a manual method that requires a lot of time and effort. Second, automatically delete empty folders using specialized software.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><b>Method 1: Manually Delete Empty Folders<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Click on File Explorer.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Click on View &gt; Show &gt; Hidden items.<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.stcleaner.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2412\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stcleaner.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"657\" height=\"756\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.stcleaner.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image1.png 657w, https:\/\/www.stcleaner.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image1-261x300.png 261w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 657px) 100vw, 657px\" \/><\/a><br \/><\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Delete the empty folders from this directory:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">C:\\Windows\\System32\\config\\systemprofile\\AppData\\Local<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Important:<\/span> This directory might also contain many folders that house some crucial files. It is recommended to keep such folders unchanged, otherwise, it could cause problems in the functioning of the Provisioning Package Runtime Processing Tool.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><b>Method 2: Automatically Delete Empty Folders Using Specialized Software<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A better way to deal with empty folders in Windows 11 is to use empty folder cleaning software.<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Download Clone Files Checker and install it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Click on Remove Empty Folders.<br \/><\/span><\/span><br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2413\" class=\"thumbnail wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 751px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.stcleaner.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2413\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stcleaner.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"741\" height=\"384\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.stcleaner.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image2.png 741w, https:\/\/www.stcleaner.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image2-300x155.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 741px) 100vw, 741px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption wp-caption-text\"><strong>Opening up the Remove Empty Folders tool<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">In the Clean Empty Folders dialog box, click on Add Path.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Select the path that contains empty folders you want to delete:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">C:\\Windows\\System32\\config\\systemprofile\\AppData\\Local<br \/><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Click on the Delete Empty Folders button.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Features:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Delete empty folders automatically without fearing of accidentally deleting folders containing your files.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Search for duplicate documents, photos, videos, music and more.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gives an option to backup your duplicate files before deleting (optional feature).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fix Wizard: Automatically take action on all duplicate files with a step-by-step wizard. The wizard prompts you which files to retain and what action to take on all duplicates.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Review &amp; Fix: Get a list of all duplicate files and use a variety of file selection criteria. For example: Newest files in each group, oldest files in each group, select files by their location, etc.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">History: Displays a history of all duplicate files found in your previous scans. You can restore your backups with One-Click (if you \u2018ve enabled the Backup option before deleting the duplicates).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Does your Windows 11 create hundreds of thousands of empty folders in the system drive? Many Internet users are reporting a glitch that causes Windows 11 to suddenly create a large number of empty folders in the C:\\Windows\\System32\\config\\systemprofile\\AppData\\Local directory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1448],"tags":[1451,1449,1452,1450],"class_list":["post-2411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-empty-folders","tag-clean-up-empty-folders-in-windows-11","tag-delete-empty-folders-in-windows-11","tag-delete-empty-folders-with-1-click","tag-fix-the-empty-folders-issue-in-windows-11"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stcleaner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stcleaner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stcleaner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stcleaner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stcleaner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2411"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.stcleaner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2491,"href":"https:\/\/www.stcleaner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411\/revisions\/2491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stcleaner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stcleaner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stcleaner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}